Improvement in pantaloons



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Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 199,273, dated January 15, 1878; application filed January 3, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JACOB W. Davis, of the city and county of San Francisco, and State of California, have inventeda new and useful Improvement in Pantaloons; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

Pantaloons have been provided with staypieces of canvas or other thin but strong fabric for preventing undue stretching at the knee. Such pieces have been applied by sewing their vertical edges to the leg-seams, their top and bottom edges being left free. The pieces were likewise contracted in width, or out narrower than the contiguous portion of the front leg of the pantaloons, so that they might the better relieve the cloth of strain.

My improvement consists in providing the seat and knee portions of the pantaloons, at the time the latter are being manufactured, with permanent patch-pieces, which are out from the same cloth and attached both on the sides and top and bottomthat is to say, stitched around their entire edge; and they lie with their face or nap side in close contact with the inner or wrong side of the cloth composing the pantaloons, so that when the seat or knees are worn through the same may be patched by simply clipping the ragged edge and sewing it to the body of the pieces underneath. These patch-pieces also perform the function of stays, to prevent ripping or stretchin g of those portions of the pantaloons to which they are applied.

In the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a front view of a pair of pantaloons with my improvement applied, and having the knee portion of one leg cut out to show the patch and stay-piece. Fig. 2 is a side view of the same, with the side of the log out out.

A indicates the seat, and B B the knee, patches. They are cut from the same cloth as the pantaloons proper, and so appliedthat the grain or warp-threads run in the same direction. The nap or face side of the patches lies in close contact with the inner or wrong side of the cloth, and the pieces are secured by one or more rows of stitches along the vertical sides and across the top and bottom edges.

The knee-pieces B may be extended over the seam, and secured thereto in such manner as to stay or strengthen the same, and thus prevent ripping.

The lower edge of the seat-piece A is similarly applied and secured to the seams of the front legs, and for the like purpose.

The piece A is made of two parts, sewed together at the middle and sewed to the central seat-seam, while its outer edge is sewed to the cloth composing the seat. In the better grades of pantaloons it is desirable the sewing-thread shall not appear on the outer or face side of the cloth; but in the cheaper grades, since the sewing-machine will generally be used for attaching the patches, the thread will, of course, appear on the face side of the cloth. The outer edge of the piece A and the upper and lower edges of the knee-pieces B may be protected by a narrow strip of thin cotton fabric.

The chief advantages of my improvement are these: When pantaloons manufactured for and sold ready made by the trade are worn out on the seat or knees it rarely happens that pieces of the original fabric can be obtained for patching them, so that they must either be thrown aside or else patched with pieces of a di1ferent quality and color. There is, hence, always a sacrifice either of economy or appearances. Whereas by my improvement pantaloons, although sold ready made, will be provided with patch-pieces out, if practicable, from waste portions of the same cloth from which the pantaloons are made up, and hence of the same quality and color, so that when the pantaloon s have been worn through the only labor required in mending will be to clip the ragged edge and sew it neatly to the patch already secured in place underneath it.

Again, the pieces A B act as stays or protectors for the seat and knee portions of the pantaloons, preventing undue stretching and rapid wear of the cloth at those points, since the same is a double thickness, and thus avoiding the deformity or ill shape caused by bulging of the cloth, as when the cloth is a single thickness at the parts above mentioned.

The knee-patches also serve to protect the knees of the wearer, and keep them warm and dry, when they might otherwise become cold and wet.

The seat-piece A is represented as circular in form, while the knee-pieces B are rectangular; but it is obvious the form may be varied without departing from my invention.

The seat-piece reaches across the inside legseams, and is secured to the front legs close to and parallel with said seams, so that it will prevent the latter from ripping in that particular part, as they generally do in pants sewed in the ordinary manner.

My improvement is particularly useful and applicable for boys, youths, and mens panta- Icons of the cheaper grades. 

